The key takeaway from Charles’s Morning Joe encounter is this: Joe Scarborough and the other gun-grabbers still do not know what they are talking about, as when Charles patiently explains to them the difference between automatic and semiautomatic weapons. The hilarious thing is that one of the other gentlemen in the conversation, confronted with this correction, argues that there is no functional difference between automatic and semiautomatic weapons, which is intellectually indefensible.

There is a difference between machine guns and squirrel guns like my .22 Ruger, which is or is not an “assault weapon,” depending on whether the grip on the stock is mostly vertical or mostly horizontal.

The distinction between automatic and semiautomatic weapons is a rather important one. The very least that Mr. Scarborough and his panelists could do is admit their error.